Study on adhesion mechanism of fouling organisms on marine steel surface based on inverted microscope

Abstract

Marine stainless steel is immersed in seawater for a long time, and its surface will inevitably adhere layer by layer to form biofilm, which will lead to microbial corrosion of the material. Therefore, it is necessary to master the microbial adhesion mechanism to better control the occurrence of fouling. However, at present, the observation method is to dye by fluorescence microscope or fix the fouling organisms and then observe them by scanning electron microscope (SEM). These methods all damage the cell activity of algae, and only the results of algae attachment can be observed, which is not conducive to further study of algae attachment mechanism. Based on the inverted microscope platform, the observation of algae attached to the metal surface found that the thinner the substrate of the sample liquid, the clearer the image of algae attached to the metal surface, and further found that the dominant algae in the liquid could complete the attachment and aggregation behavior on the metal surface within 1 hour to 2 hours. The conclusions obtained in this paper will guide the study on the attachment mechanism of fouling organisms on metal surfaces and provide a preliminary basis for the design of prevention and control strategies and time points of fouling organisms.